Ohio’s spring turkey season is about to get underway and state wildlife biologists say hunters should expect many opportunities to bring home a gobbler. A mild winter and bumper crop of nuts – a favorite food source of gobblers – helped sustain the state’s growing turkey population.

The turkey season runs April 22 through May 19. This season marks only the second year wild turkeys can be hunted statewide.

An estimated 220,000 wild turkeys currently inhabit Ohio’s 88 counties. It’s often hard to believe that Ohio’s first turkey hunting season in 1966 covered only nine counties with an estimated population of a few thousand turkeys across the state. Through wise wildlife management, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife has successfully restored the eastern wild turkey to Ohio’s woodlands and continues in this effort today. In fact, Ohio is gaining a national reputation as one of the best turkey hunting states in the Midwest.